221 results for author: Joanna Campe


Review of Eelco Rohling’s The Climate Question

The Climate Question: Natural Cycles, Human Impact, Future Outlook, 2019, Eelco Rohling, Oxford University Press, 162 p., reviewed by Tom Goreau, August 10, 2019   This slim volume is the best possible source for those who wish to understand how much humans and natural forces have changed the climate in the past and present, and what realistic options we have for nature-based solutions to prevent runaway climate change. Unlike other books about climate change, this one is firmly based in an understanding of the global carbon cycle and the changes it has undergone in the past. The book is very tightly focused on the facts, and entirely ...

The Ancient Native American Practice of Remineralization

Dr. Lee Klinger is an independent scientist living in Big Sur, California, where he serves as director of Sudden Oak Life, a movement aimed at improving the health of trees and forests in California and elsewhere through practice, education, and research. His research could change the way we think about our past, and our future. Recent research by Dr. Lee Klinger suggests that, far from being a new idea, remineralization has been integral to forest health in the California Sierras for hundreds of years. Using middens, strategic tree placement, and organic waste, Indigenous people of the California Sierras for centuries used remineralization ...

‘Redribble-ize’ the Earth: Basketball Court Art Installation Explores Environmental Themes, Replenishes Soils

Above: Drawing of the proposed 'human' side of the basketball court, with tentative text in free throw lane.   When it comes to communicating the brilliant, practical, natural and economic solution that is rock dust, a creative remineralization basketball court provides the ‘slam-dunk’ combination of educational art and inspirational play. “Games have been really successful for us in finding a place where we can have conversations with people outside the ideological frameworks of either ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’ to instead focus on the issues themselves and investigate them in ways that are harder to do in everyday ...

RTE’s New Research Database Director Spreads Word about Remineralization at Australia-Brazil Conference

Above: Multidisciplinary team of researchers at the Australia-Brazil Alumni Conference. The 4th Australia-Brazil Alumni Conference was held in São Caetano do Sul, at the Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia, from May 17th - 18th. Aiming to engage former scholarship recipients from Australian and Brazilian government programs, the two-day conference brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and students to explore ways to strengthen the scientific bonds among the two countries, stimulating international cooperation. From biologists to lawyers, participants had the opportunity to give a presentation in the TED Talk format and show others ...

New Research Examines Rock Dust’s Impact on Nitrogen Cycle

The nitrogen cycle is perhaps one of the least understood and most complicated of nature’s cycles, especially when basalt is added to the system, according to Rock Dust Local founder Tom Vanacore. He adds, this makes it a topic worthy of further investigation. Vanacore notes scientists in the U.S. Midwest have observed changing nitrous oxide levels when NPK and basalt were spread across conventional farms, indicating rock dust does interact with the nitrogen cycle. “They looked at water and saw an increase in nitrate concentrations in the bio-water. This is out in Illinois where there is black dirt and they’ve been farming conventionally for ...

Cannabis to the Rescue: Flowering Herb Offers Effective, Economic Means of Capturing CO2

Equinox Farm's Ted Dobson showing the soil where cannabis will be grown.   Cannabis may very well be the ‘drug of choice’ in terms of organically sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide through agricultural production, aided by the highly-effective, natural solution that is rock dust remineralization. “I’ve been fascinated with remineralizing for decades,” says Ted Dobson, general manager and farmer-in-chief at Equinox Farm near Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts. With the help of some rock dust, the New England horticulturalist sees cannabis farming as producing a rich commodity that also puts excess CO2 in its proper place ...

Brook’s Bend Farm


The Valley Gives Campaign


University of California receives $4.7M to Study Carbon Sequestration with Rock Dust, Compost and Biochar

An exciting new consortium led by the University of California, Davis, and the UC Working Lands Innovation Center is setting out to find new ways of taking excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere using Nature’s best resource — soil. The multipartner consortium has received a $4.7 million grant from California’s Strategic Growth Council to research and study the use of soil amendments in carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it as a fixed molecule in a carbon sink, such as soil, oceans or plants. While this happens naturally, human advancements in agriculture and ...

Soil Remineralization Shapes Yields and Elevates Food Nutrition: An Interview with Philipp Swoboda

Philipp Swoboda grew up with a forest bordering his family’s hillside home in Austria, which he believes contributed greatly to his early love of nature. Throughout his upbringing, being in and around nature was essentially the norm. Although he lived on the outskirts of an urban area, Philipp recalls his passion for exploring the forest and seeing wildlife in its natural habitat. Fast forward a couple decades and Philipp’s passion for nature continued with his obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental system science, course-heavy in geography, and then earning a Master’s Degree in sustainable development — an international program ...